Here's a new animation that I started last night.
It's got some cheap smoke in it and quickly animated mechanical objects but my focus was on the character. Hope to add some sound effects tonight and replace this with that by tomorrow. If anyone has some extra time, or just wants to get some complaints off their chest, then go ahead and leave a message or two!

hey looks good but there's a pop in the legs of the ball when he turns as the helicopter moves out the screen.

the flip is good but towards the end I (personal opinion) think that the sqatch and stretch may not be nessicary

and the legs at the end. the pose.... its hard to have that feel for me.... because he doesn't have arms so that pose makes him look odd. (I'll tell you what i'm talking about later)

just a little........

but all in all its very good..

Selah 7

Giant

06 June 2005, 02:56 AM

Heya Shreds, I like what you have done. A couple fo things. Something that is a bit strange is the final landing when the character's is leg sticking out, balanced on the heel. It does not feel right. The character does the backflip, lands, then does a recoil bounce (which is really nice, nice use of squash and stretch), then lands in that strange pose. Perhaps the final pose could be somthing that makes him feel more daring and in control. I am thinking about how Spiderman lands on all fours and is croutched really low to the ground, as if anticipating to do it again. In your situation however, in case the missile comes back, or the robot fires another.

I like the casual but in control feeling the character gives off in the beginning, maybe explroe that a bit more.

Another thing you might want to do when the characters pivots his pelvic area to look at the robot for the first time, is to have the action a bit quicker, and also lower him a little. The feeling I am trying to explain would be, if he had arms his they would be oustretched, fingers spread out and palms up (that feeling). A mix between surprised and scared. Plus it gets him a more cautious pose as he is watching the robot move to his front side. He could still be lower as he watches the robot slowly and methodicaly pivot back to face foward at the robot. I think then it gives the viewer a feeling that something is about to happen, as your character will exude that. That is a great spot to add an element of aniticipation.

Other than that, I like it alot!

jsburakoff

06 June 2005, 04:40 AM

Hmm... I think he should be doing something before the robot shows up. People are almost always doing SOMETHING, even if it's staring off into space, he's more... staying in motion than really doing anything. Perhaps if he was examining some spot on the ground and scuffing it with his foot, or in the process of slowly walking right, or stretching...

Just a thought, my animation has been helped by cutting a lot of dead weight out, before I started thinking about what a character was doing at every moment in a performance piece, my characters always looked like they'd been waiting for the shot to start and were a bit startled when it did.

pollywoggles

06 June 2005, 07:52 AM

Nice work! I really like what you're doing.

When he turns to see the chopper, he goes on his toes (and pops, but that's another matter), I don't really see the shift of weight that I'd expect. Then a few frames later, when he kind of shifts his weight back (in anticipation of that rocket torpedo), he feels out of balance, as if he'd fall over backwards and I also really see the IK sort of tugging on his toes.

The jump looks pretty good-- maybe a little more ease into the top of the arc (it seems like most the easing is done on the ease-out, at the far side of the arc (after the highest key).

But I love the concept, beautifully rendered, dynamics are spectacular. A really good piece.

Shreds

06 June 2005, 11:35 PM

OK everyone!
The pop that is happening in his legs when the chopper flys off is from missing frames when I tried to import the frames into the video editor.
I have also fixed the ending pose and am currently working on adding more of an intro to keep any dead wieght out of the sequence. I've already deleted the frames where he first sees the chopper and when he anticipates the rocket coming at him so that will all be redone. Hope to post it soon!

Really good work here. Strong animation. Just a few super-picky stuff...

When he's jumping to avoid the missile, the frame where we just see the tip of the missle on the right -- the left foot is off the ground -- I'm thinking, since it's just kicking off the ground, its acceleration would be fastest -- the drag on the left toe that you show on the the next frame, should actually be pushed backward to this frame.

When he hits the ground (at the end of the back-flip, after dodging the missle), the ankle doesn't go flat on the squash (it appears frozen) -- it'd expect it to be slapping down flat against the ground at that frame (considering how much his body squashes over that foot).

The (approx) 8/9th frame, the frame between the heel and toe contact on the run, his foot hovers in the air -- it doesn't look right to me. But then maybe it's a rig issue (not animation), since his feet seem to also hover at some of the end frames. You took care of the popping, which also seemed like a rig issue (or was that a play-back thing?)

Just before that that flying-robot hovers off the frame, the character lifts his right leg and pulls it in -- I do see a weight shift over the left foot -- but I'm not entirely convinced that it's enough -- I can't really tell-- he could be balanced fine -- it was just enough to give me pause.

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